A Pakistani mother and her four daughters have died in a blaze at their home in Lancashire, London and the father is critically ill in hospital, BBC reported Wednesday.
The bodies of the woman, a 39-year-old community centre worker, and the four girls were recovered by fire-fighters in Accrington, Lancashire. The mother was said to also have a fifth child who has been receiving hospital treatment for leukaemia. The father is in a critical condition in the specialist burns unit at Manchester?s Wythenshawe Hospital, the channel added.
Friend and neighbour Saeeda Farooq said that mother Kaneze Riaz was a child project coordinator at a local community centre.
Her four daughters were named locally as Sairah, 16, Sophia, 12, Alisha, aged eight or nine, and Hina, three and a half. Saeeda Farooq said, ?Kaneze was so lovely. All the daughters they were like angels. They were beautiful. ?She was looking after them so well. I just can?t believe what?s happened.?
The father of the girls, Riaz?s husband Mohammed, is in his mid-40s, she said.
The couple also have a son, Adam, 17, who has leukaemia and is being treated at the Christie cancer hospital in Manchester.
Zeenat Begum, 24, who worked with Mrs Riaz, saw rescue workers bring the girls? bodies out Wednesday morning.
?We don?t know what?s happened. Next door heard banging on the walls but couldn?t break the door down. It looks like the fire was upstairs,? she said.
A Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service spokesman said he believed police are treating the blaze as ?suspicious?, although Lancashire Police would not confirm this.
The family was discovered upstairs at the end-terrace house in Tremellen Street just before 2 am, where the blaze had already taken a strong hold. Michael Frankland, East Lancashire community protection manager for the fire service, said, ?We believe the police are treating it as suspicious. We are gathering a specialist forensic team.
The ill-fated family lived in the last house at the far end of the street, which leads to Hyndburn Park Primary School. Alisha attended the school, according to neighbours. Sairah, who was due to take her GCSEs next year, was at Moorhead High School. Family friend Ghazala Ahmed, who had known Mrs Riaz for five years, said Mrs Riaz, who was mixed race, was born in UK but had been educated in Pakistan.
She added, ?She came back to England when she was 16. They have been married for about 20 years.
?I asked her that day at Eid and she said ?I?m absolutely fine?. She said Adam was getting better. She never showed that she was sad about it. She was really brave about it, you would never see her cry.?
Mrs Riaz headed a ?child improvement programme? for the Hyndburn Cultural Association.
The organisation works with schools and mosques to help young Asian people engage in community projects and access services in a bid to curb high unemployment, poor health and poor academic achievement.
She was also a board member of the Hyndburn Community Network, which brings together community, voluntary and faith sector groups in the area.